Filesharing seems to be slowly dissipating due to “streaming” services like Netflix and Spotify. These services in turn force DRM or DRM-like structures upon users which results in users no longer controlling the media they partake in.

Commercial streaming services like the aforementioned also control the selections a user can make, as opposed to filesharing where users (by exception of mass hysteria) can choose themselves. Filter bubbles (as well as “we don’t have a license for that song”-bubbles) cause tremendous harm to independent producers who cannot reach out using otherwise commonly used commercial services. It may have a devastating on non-big-media culture.

If we do not continue filesharing with storable media and can remain free to download, store and share our personal choices using our own harddrives and network connections, I believe a large part of contemporary cultures around the world will be lost in archives and aging harddrives.